Rogers, Bono's widow sponsoring bill to battle OxyContin abuse

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April 18, 2010

By CHRIS HARRIS, Staff Writer The Commonwealth Journal Sun Apr 18, 2010, 03:45 AM EDT

Somerset — Just like Sonny and Cher were a great duo in the world of entertainment, so might Congressman Harold “Hal” Rogers form a formidable pair with another familiar name.

Rogers and U.S. Rep. Mary Bono Mack — a Republican from California and the wife of the late actor and politician Sonny Bono —have introduced a bill designed to prevent the spread and abuse of a drug well-known here in eastern Kentucky, OxyContin.

“I have seen first hand the devastating effects of prescription drug abuse and the epidemic that faces our nation,” said Rogers. “If we are serious about keeping this out of the hands of our young people and stopping the lawlessness that comes with drug diversion, then we must ensure that OxyContin is limited to only those who need it, first and foremost.”

The bill, known as the Stop Oxy Abuse Act of 2010, revises the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classification to ensure that the drug is prescribed only for severe pain, its intended use.

As a narcotic, OxyContin was originally intended to be prescribed only for severe pain to help individuals dealing with late stages of cancer and other severe illnesses. However, noted Rogers’s office, an increasing number of patients are being prescribed this drug for less severe reasons, expanding the drug’s availability and potential for abuse. (According to the drug-monitoring system KASPER, 8.5 percent of Kentuckians used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons in the past year.)

“Prescription drug abuse is skyrocketing across the country, and it’s essential that we do everything we can to limit the availability of these potentially deadly drugs and better monitor who is getting them, which is why Congressman Rogers and I are joining forces on this important measure,” said Bono Mack. “I’ve seen both the beneficial use of Oxy and the outright abuse of the drug. We must strike a better balance to ensure that only those who actually need such a substance are the ones benefiting from it.”

Bono Mack won a special election to replace her late husband following his untimely 1998 death in a skiing accident.

Other co-sponsors of the bill include Republicans John Duncan of Tennessee, Connie Mack of Florida, Lee Terry of Nebraska, and Edward Whitfield of Kentucky, as well as Massachusetts Democrat Stephen Lynch.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) recently issued the Monitoring the Future Survey, which revealed that an increasing number of young people are abusing prescription drugs. According to NIDA’s findings, nearly one in 20 high school seniors reported abuse of OxyContin. Additionally, seven of the top 10 drugs were prescribed or purchased over the counter, with nearly 66 percent of students reporting that they obtained prescription drugs for non-medical use from friends or relatives.

Specifically, OxyContin is a problem in Rogers’s eastern Kentucky territory. Since 2004, anti-drug organization Operation UNITE has confiscated 12,609 pills (figures through February of this year). Additionally, UNITE has placed over 1,700 individuals in treatment for addiction, and OxyContin was the number one drug of choice among them.

Each year, the numbers are staggering. Although 2009 saw 778 OxyContin pills removed or seized, previous years saw figures in the thousands. That’s not a sign the problem is going away, noted UNITE’s Dale Morton — it could simply mean that different organizations confiscated a number of drugs that make up the statistical difference.

Whatever the case, Somerset’s own Congressman Rogers has a pressing issue in his district, which ranks highest in the nation for OxyContin abuse, as does Bono Mack in hers — and this new piece of legislation making its way through the regular channels could be a means of solving the problem.

“In the face of mounting drug overdoses, federal indictments for misbranding, and burgeoning illegal trafficking, the FDA has simply looked the other way and shirked its responsibility,” said Rogers. “I join Congresswoman Bono Mack in taking a stand and focusing our efforts on limiting the use of OxyContin rather than simply reformulating this drug that is crippling our future generations.”

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